Philadelphia cracks down on illegal dumping

PHILADELPHIA (WTXF) - Illegal dumping is among the biggest problems cited by Philadelphians when surveyed about their quality of life. Now, there's action from the city to to catch dumpers instead of simply cleaning up after them.

Virginia Schultz called FOX 29 to her Port Richmond neighborhood back in February to show us the illegal dumping where Coral Street meets Valletta that's destroying her once proud neighborhood.

"There's needles, condoms there is everything all over the place. It's sickening. It's sickening and I'm fed up with it!"

Ten months later, it's worse than ever on streets where children once played, mounds of trash--mostly construction debris from rogue remodelers--send the message that drugs and prostitution are allowed here.

All within view of Amtrak passengers on their way to visit Center City Philadelphia. One business just installed its own security camera to try and catch so-called short-dumpers.

Philadelphia's Streets Department comes out on occasion to haul away the garbage. On Tuesday, the city announced a major crackdown on short-dumpers while cleaning up a notorious dumpsite at Hutchinson and Venango.

Monitored surveillance cameras are going up all over Philadelphia. 10 are already in place and there will be 100 more by the end of 2019. Those caught will face increased fines, vehicle seizures, even in egregious cases a short stint in jail.

"In fact, we have it just in the last week or two we caught four people already that we're turning over to the police department," Streets Commissioner Carlton Williams said.

Coral and Valetta is among the sites scheduled for cameras in 2019.

Virginia Schulz says it's about time her once proud neighborhood got the attention it deserves.

"They need to get aggressive. They get aggressive with everything else. They need to get aggressive with this," Schultz said.